>> paul: this week on the journal editorial report. they issue a warning to fellow republicans on obamacare. if you fund it you are for it. and risks a government shutdown. they take on rand paul on national security as another security risk is revealed. bradley manning gets convicted and edward snowden gets asylum. both are being celebrated in some circles but are they really heroes? >> paul: welcome to the "journal editorial report". if you fund it, you are for it. that was message from

conservative lawmakers to fellow republicans as they continue their push to make defunding obamacare as part of a deal to keep the government running past september. it could result in a government shutdown is met by resistance with some of the g.o.p. with critics calling it political suicide. m marco rubio had this message. >> if we pass a budget in september that funds obamacare, you couldn't do everything you could. you pay for this. you double down in it in ways that have harm our economy and to our country. this is our last best chance. >> paul: joining us this week, dan henninger. james freeman and washington columnist kim strassel. dan, this marco rubio strategy, what do you think of it? >> other than the fund-raising possibilities for all the principals, as a

strategy, wait we're describing it. we'll have a lot of detail in it. the problem is this is about the budget. okay? funding the whole government which is invariably a complex subject. if they pursue this strategy about funding obamacare, yeah, they think they will get some support for it. they will get the support of 43% of the country. the rest of the country watches this, it will roll forward toward the shutdown. then i'm convinced all the media coverage will immediately start, every tv station will talk about the effect of a government shutdown. this is tsunami of coverage is going to wash the republicans out to sea one more time. people won't be able to focus on the complex details of this strategy. >> paul: it will be budget and funding the government and not about obamacare. james? >> i think it's going to be

about obamacare. it's different from some earlier fights where republicans are not -- republicans are not trying to reform all government to do the annual spending bill. they are saying specifically not obamacare. >> paul: no question. all right, but do you think they can basically make that case and make it about that when obama is going to be saying the opposite. republicans want to shut down the government in order to deny health care to poor people. that will be the debate. i'm not saying he is right. >> you can clearly say this is not about poor people. they already get medicaid. it's hosting the rest of us. >> paul: you are already explaining it. [ laughter ] >> i don't see a lot of downside here because either they force some reform. even if it's too much to hope they get the president to

stop here, maybe they force some delays on the impression of it. you have government and epa employees will considered nonessential. i don't really see what the downside is. >> paul: can the republicans really hold down in the shutdown showdown if the national parks get shut down and traffic controllers don't show up for this work. i've been through this rodeo before and i don't think i've seen the republicans maintaining a united front which is what you have to do succeed? >> one of the reasons this has been pushed off is because republicans lost this battle a couple times and decided to wait until this fall to tackle something like this. problem here, they can't delineate an end game. even if the house were to pass a bill to fund obamacare and got a bill over harry

reid and made it to the president's desk, he will veto it. that point means 22 senate democrats to overcome the vetoed. it's never going to happen. yes, there is no more noble goal than funding obamacare but if you have to do it smarted and in a way you can win. that is why some republicans is advocating, to use better leverage or something to extract some concessions or continue to let this bill crack up and then see what you get. >> paul: i've talked to some of the senators and activists who are behind this. they say, republicans have to be shown to be fighting for something because if they don't, if they don't really at least make the effort here, then it's going to demoralize the base and going to hurt the republican party in 2014. >> i am very sympathetic wick that point of view. i understand their desire to fight back. there should be more of that.

and it's a possibility they are not considering that obamacare is in bigger trouble than they think. i don't think it's the last chance. we could be looking at historic collapse of the liberal idea. this is big entitlement. they pushed it forward. if this thing implodes on its own, the significance of that will truly be historic. if the opposition is destroying itself, i think your job is to stand back and let it. >> paul: the danger with that, subsidies will make a constituency for the bill and you'll never be able to repeal it? >> that is true. that is the alternative argument. can i point out too, i think you make a bigger mistake. how much more is the republican base going to be demoralized these people say they can accomplish this and

it all collapses and fails. >> couple things, 2011 the republicans got the sequester out of it that worked out republicans. there is a down side you turn his failure into your failure and you become responsible. there is also the problem, i agree it's going to fatal but it may not fail as quickly next year as some people will get new subsidies. >> it's a high risk strategy. >> when we come back, competitors face off against chris christie against rand paul about national security. have they forgotten the lessons of september 11th? [announcer] there's no hiding the goodness of the latest from

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♪ >> paul: never wanted to go shrink from a fight. chris christie is back for comments he made at a forum

in colorado where he called out libertarians like potential candidate rand paul what he says is dangerous drift from national security. >> this strain of libertarianism is going through both parties and making big headlines i think is very dangerous thought. as a governor of a state that lost a second most people on 9/11 behind the state of new york and still seeing those families, i love all these debates that people are getting in. listen you can name any number of people but he is one of them. these intellectual debates, i want them to come to new jersey and sit across from the widows and orphans and that have conversation. >> paul: we're back with dan and dorothy and matt joins us.

esoteric, intellectual debates, that is your specialty. >> right to the gut. [ laughter ] >> i wanted to tell you in this performance here, the reason christie is so popular, he knows what resonates. this is not to suggest at all he doesn't deeply believe what he is saying. >> paul: you think it's critique is accurate? >> absolutely. if you compare him with rand paul it's an exact description. he knows very well these are fancy descriptions. when you come down to it the united states of america population is not going to dive into these stories that these spins out about the violation of the constitution. christie is there to tell you buildings were burning in new york, people were jumping out of windows. we have to protect ourselves. >> paul: there is growing opposition to the surveillance of the nsa, rand

paul is tapping some public sentiment, not just on the left. we had a voted in congress and republican congressman in michigan that almost gutted the collection of meta data. it failed but very close. is dorothy right about the politics? >> i really would like to think that dorothy is right about this and also chris christie is right. i worry that 9/11 and all of that is becoming a new york-new jersey, connecticut thing. those that experienced that day and it's essentially receding out in part to the country to something of an distraction because the united states has been lucky, unlike capitals in europe not to experience another terrorist event. i think, unfortunately, there may be reservoir of political support that could get behind what rand paul is saying. >> paul: how serious a risk is this within the republican party?

>> to be clear, risk, we can say this is a win-win for rand paul and chris christie. they get to define themselves as spokesmen as two sides of party. why is the governor of new jersey engaging the senator or junior of kentucky. it's all about 2016. christie is smart to come out. there is more of a feeling that america is a responsible global power. next time something like boston happens again, that will immediately under cut the isolationist and dangerous push by people like rand paul who wants to gut what we are doing. >> just to say, i hope dan is not right. we've had a long history of isolation. the country has never fully -- there has been a fringe element and now there is a big boom from right wing

commentary that is supporting rand paul. at the core of american psyche they are not with it. >> paul: but there are a lot of people in the grassroots, the iraq war did not help the republican party in 2006 and 2008. they want to go back to domestic issues because they think if you for active government overseas, that means bigger government at home. i disagree with that because i think reagan you could be for free markets at home and muscular foreign policy. but there is an a element of the party that doesn't agree with that? >> that is right. key phrase. to qualify my point, what senator paul is picture is a loser nationally. it could divide the republican party, i believe, where some of the ideas are getting resonance it could cut them in two pieces. >> here is the problem. the face of this position is

rand paul. rand paul is is a man who can say wisely that the people like snowden are equivalent to like martin luther king. civil libertarians are jailed and snowden equal to martin luther king? the idea of this is going to resonate with different portions of our population. >> paul: when we come back, edward snowden gets asylum and bradley manning faces life in prison. both have been hailed as heroes in some circles but are they?

>>. >> paul: edward snowden left moscow airport thursday after russian government granted

him temporary asylum. it comes days after bradley manning was convicted on charges for passing classified information to wikileaks, something that could land him in jail for the rest of his life. some are hailing them as heroes. whistleblowers that don't deserve prison sentences. what do you make the russian decision to grant snowden asylum. >> its slap to the state. it's the way the russians have behaved throughout the years. as for, vladimir putin launching this reset. this is hostile act against the u.s. it should be treated as such. >> paul: what does it say about u.s. influence, not just with russia but more broadly? >> to restore america's

standing within the world, these incidents. hong kong and china to dwayne someone that is indicted on three serious counts. you can't influence russia that most countries would do would hand somebody back to the u.s. to face charges. >> paul: moving on to bradley manning, you think the verdict he was not convicted of aiding and abetting the enemy but convicted on the other counts, fair verdict? >> no, it's not a fair verdict. i didn't expect a fair verdict. >> paul: you would have thrown the book at him? >> of course this is aiding the enemy and this is transformed by our sympathetic media that went whole hog. you know the word whistleblower has been tainted by these two people. you will never hear them in the say sail way. the idea of this. >> paul: what damage did he

do, as to the real harm to national security? >> to national security, look, he unloaded documents without the slightest regard for of the newspapers. >> paul: the newspapers redacted them. he laid it out there and they had names of people who cooperated with us in afghanistan and iraq. they could have been targets of terrorists. >> are the values that the nation has, if you can now betray the notions of national security, gives new meaning just an honest citizen doing his work. this is confusion. here is somebody who clearly within intent to malign the united states, there can no question about that threw this out and to pretend this

is about the constitution. having that picked up in the lead, this is really serious damage. >> paul: did the administration have any choice but to prosecute him and charge snowden? >> i don't think they have any choice at all. the one thing that they do have a choice is on telling the american people more about the systems they are using. general keith alexander said in testimony before congress they had prevented dozens of terrorist plots. he was going to work on it and bring some of those to the public's attention. they have not done that. there is always the question of methods and means, terrorists will find things out. i think they have to release more information about foiled plots for these very necessary programs because otherwise, it remains an distraction. >> paul: this is getting away from the administration, it seems to me and they are

doing an inept job of defending what they say are essential programs. what is behind it? >> i think president obama may agree, to abuse these powers. he is not willing to go out there, we need to do this. it's very telling with the vote last week on amash with the nsa. it doesn't say anything until the night before, bedtime for us, when the press secretary of the white house please don't defund nsa because we need this. they haven't said anything about this. >> paul: it's been a debacle and jeopardizing these surveillance programs, anti-terror programs. we need more from the president of the united states on this and other things. we have to take one more break. when we come back, hits and misses of the week.

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♪ >> paul: tame for hits and misses of the week, dorothy? >> here is miss to all them wringing hair hands over mrs. anthony weiner who, of course, came forward to the cameras once it was learned that her husband had engaged his interesting practices on the internet to tell him how much he loved him and campaign speech. this is wildly misplaced. this is wildly and badly treated wife but that of a hard political woman and this is a couple matched. and palestinians restarted the peace talks after three years of sitting aside. everyone thinks peace talks is is a good idea. and head of palestinian

authorities who is dictator and plo has turned this down. they do not wanted peace. have we not learned anything over the last 65 years to try to get peace out of dictators. >> a miss for white house press secretary jay carney for dismissing irs as phony scandal. this was inevitable because it's keeping with this white house. it continues to grow in government. when the government fails or when it turns it's terrifying powers on citizens, white house response to blame i it on the other side and move on. when the caretakers of government are irresponsible as government itself, we got a problem. >> paul: all right. thank you all. remember if you have your own hit or miss, please send it to us at jer@foxnews.com. that is it for this week. thanks to my panel and

especially to all of you watching. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you right here next week. >> jon: on fox news watch. >> i've run my last campaign. i don't knead to spin. >> jon: the president claiming no spin and on the road trying to convince americans he is the man with the plan and republicans are out to stop him. are the media buying that spin? >> whether it's about the attacks in benghazi and talking points. attempts to turn this into a scandal have failed. >> jon: obama and white house skies ramp up their rhetoric about the phony scandals. the irs and benghazi phony. how did the media react?